Podcast: Fourteen Lives

Editor’s note: This year the Foghorn is partnering with Media Studies Professor Beth Hoffman’s audio production class to publish audio reporting produced by USF students. Each week we will feature a blurb in print and the full audio project will be published online on our website.

Imagine taking on a life that in the future you’ll have to give back; this is the life of a foster care parent. Claire Kirshner shares the story of Suzanne Boone, a foster mother for Los Angeles County. Of the three years Boone has been a part of foster care, she has taken on fourteen children whose lives were dependent on the helping hands of foster parents. Taking care of the children ranged from a week to several months on end depending on the child’s situation. All babies are tested and if positive, the baby cannot go home with the parent. Parents are able to undergo quick rehab and their condition would be reassessed. She handles cases where the baby cannot go home with the parent, where she is the in-between. Boone says the baby’s needs are small and well-coordinated with her schedule, making her job simple and while she is deeply attached to the process, she is also attached to several of the children she has helped grow.

In a way, she considers the children her own and part of her family. Despite the drug exposure that these children have endured, Boone admits the children do not sustain as much damage as she thought they would, because at early intervention, she is able to aid in the growing of wonderful individuals.